Game apparatus and alphabet teaching device

ABSTRACT

A game device particularly suitable for teaching purposes includes a hollow body containing a plurality of movable objects, preferably balls, each marked with distinctive indicia. A plurality of compartments are arranged longitudinally of an upper portion of the body. A manually operable flap, contained within the body, is swingably mounted to sweep the movable objects upwardly from the bottom of the body into the compartments in a single upstroke and return means return movable objects to the bottom of the body. As an alphabet toy each compartment has alphabet indicia corresponding to alphabet indicia of one of the movable objects and in the play those objects which are not in a corresponding compartment are returned to the bottom of the body and the procedure is repeated until all of the movable objects are in a corresponding compartment.

United States Patent Lopez May 16, 1972 [54] GAME APPARATUS AND ALPHABETTEACHING DEVICE [52] US. Cl. ..273/1R,273/144 B [51 Int. Cl. ..A63b63/00 [58] FieldofSearch ..273/l0l, 119R, 123 R, 125 R,

273/124 R, l R, 144 B [5 6] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS2,489,676 ll/l949 Robinson ..273/l25 R Primary Examiner-Anton O. OechsleAssistant Examiner-Marvin Siskind Attorney-Reilly and Lewis ABSTRACT Agame device particularly suitable for teaching purposes includes ahollow body containing a plurality of movable objects, preferably balls,each marked with distinctive indicia. A plurality of compartments arearranged longitudinally of an upper portion of the body. A manuallyoperable flap, contained within thebody, is swingably mounted to sweepthe movable objects upwardly from the bottom of the body into thecompartments in a single upstroke and return means return movableobjects to the bottom of the body. As an alphabet toy each compartmenthas alphabet indicia corresponding to alphabet indicia of one of themovable objects and in the play those objects which are not in acorresponding compartment are returned to the bottom of the body and theprocedure is repeated until all of the movable objects are in acorresponding compartment.

8 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures GAME APPARATUS AND ALPHABET TEACHING DEVICEThis invention relates to game devices and more particularly to a novelgame-type device which is particularly suitable for teaching letters ofthe alphabet, colors, and the like.

A variety of game devices have heretofore been provided which aresuitable for teaching letters of the alphabet and colors but usuallythey do not require any manual manipulation coupled with an element ofchance so as to lend a degree of interest to the user.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a game devicewhich is simple, durable, and relatively inexpensive to manufacture andwill retain the interest of the user for extended periods of time.

Another object of this invention is to provide a novel game device whichis particularly usable as an educational toy requiring the matching oflike objects which utilizes a degree of manual manipulation and skill soas to require a certain amount of user concentration.

Still a further object of this invention is to provide a novel gamedevice which is particularly suitable for teaching the letters of thealphabet and is a self-contained unit including a hollow body andassociated parts of which all may be readily molded from plastic.

In accordance with the present invention in a preferred em bodimentshown there is provided a hollow rectangular body for containing aplurality of movable objects, preferably balls. For use as aneducational toy each object has individual indicia such as alphabetletters and/or different colors to identify and distinguish each fromthe other. A plurality of compartments are mounted in an upper portionof the body extending longitudinally thereof at equally spaced intervalswith a forward entrance. Each compartment is marked with indiciacorresponding with the indicia on one of the movable objects. Anelongated flap is mounted for pivotal movement in the body and isarranged to elevate all of the objects from the bottom of the bodyupwardly into the compartments in a single upward swinging movement.Object return members are associated with each compartment to returnthose objects from the compartment back into the bottom of the body. Inthe play as an alphabet toy an object is returned when its indicia doesnot correspond with that of the compartment, and this procedure ofelevating the objects and returning some is repeated until all of thecompartments are filled with movable objects with indicia correspondingwith that of the compartment.

Other objects, advantages and capabilities of the present invention willbecome more apparent as the description proceeds taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of an educational game deviceembodying features of the present invention with the front wall removedto show interior parts;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along lines 2--2 of FIG. 1 and drawn toan enlarged scale; and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along lines 3-3 of FIG. 2.

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown a game device inclusive ofa hollow generally'rectangular body 11 including a bottom wall 12, topwall 13, end walls 14 and 15, and front and rear walls 16 and 17,preferably molded as an in tegral unit from a plastic material, whichdefine an enclosure for a plurality of movable objects 19, preferablyballs, contained within the body. It is understood that other shapes ofhollow bodies may be utilized in the practice of this invention I butthat the rectangular shape has several advantages including itsself-supporting capability when placed on a flat support surface such asa table and its ease of molding as an integral unit. The movable objects19 may take other forms than spherical balls but balls are preferred dueto their rolling capability. The balls 19 are marked or bear indiciaillustrated in the educational toy shown as a letter of the alphabet andeach has a different coloring; For illustration purposes, several of theballs are marked with indicia including the colors blue, red, and green.As shown, these balls normally rest on the bottom wall in the bottom ofthe body until elevated as described hereinafter.

A plurality of object-supporting compartments or cells 21extendlongitudinally of the body along the upper rear wall of the body.These compartments 21 are of a corresponding size and shape, extend thelengthwise extent of the body, and are formed by opposed spaced sidewalls 22, a bottom wall 23, with the rear wall 17 of the body formingthe back of the compartment. The end walls 14 and of the body form aside wall for the end compartments. The bottom wall 23 inclinesdownwardly and rearwardly at a slight angle and is joined to the rearwall 17 to retain the balls therein. The front of the compartments areleft open to permit the balls to enter and discharge from thecompartments. The game device shown has a total of 26 compartments whichare marked with indicia consecutively from left to right with theletters of the alphabet, making the device suitable for teaching lettersof the alphabet. Further, each compartment may be color-coded with adifferent color to further distinguish and identify each compartment andteach colors.

The balls 19 are moved fromthe bottom of the body into the compartmentsby an elevating means in the form of a generally flat panel or flapmember 26 which extends the lengthwise extent of the inside of the bodyand has a pivot rod 27 extending along one end thereof withthe rodprojecting through apertures in the end walls of the body. The pivot rodterminates in enlarged knobs 28 at each end suitable for gripping by theuser so that the flap member 26 may be rotated in a vertical planewithin the body to elevate the balls into the compartments. The flapmember 26 has a longitudinally extending upstanding rib 29 to assist incarrying the ball from a horizontal to a vertical position, as best seenin FIG. 2. The flap member 26 is arranged relative to the inner wallsurfaces in the body so that in a single sweeping action the inner walland flap member surfaces cooperate to move all the balls 19 into thecompartments 21. The compartments shown are sized to receive at leasttwo balls. The square lower inside comers of the box are provided withfront and rear inclined plates 31 and 32, respectively, arranged on anincline between the front wall and bottom wall and between the rear walland bottom wall, respectively, to provide inner surfaces which moreclosely conform to the end of the flap member and the spacing betweenthe inner wall surfaces and the end of the flap is arranged so that itis substantially less than the diameter of the balls so that the ballswill be elevated when the flap is rotated clockwise as viewed in FIG. 2.

For the return of the balls from each compartment there is provided aball-retum device in the form of a flap-like return member 34 having agenerally right-angle cross-sectional shape with one ball-engaging leg35 normally depending parallel to and inside the back of the compartmentand an'outer leg 36 which extends through an opening 37 in the back wallof the body and normally projects transversely to the back wall. Thelegs 35 and 36 are joined by a common hub portion 38 and a pivot member39 extends through the hub and is supported in the side walls of thecompartment so that the return member will swing to an angle ofapproximately when the outer leg 36 is depressed downwardly from ahorizontal to a vertical position, as shown in dashed lines in FIG. 2.This swinging movement of the vertical leg 35 against the ball rolls itout of the compartment and the ball falls by gravity down into thebottom of the body. The return leg has a weighted portion 350 to ensurethat it automatically returns to the normal vertical depending positiononce the ball has been removed from the compartment.

In a full sequence of operation, then, for use as an alphabet toy all ofthe balls 19 are initially in the bottom of the body and are elevatedinto the compartments by a single upward sweep of the flap member 26 asindicated by the arrows in FIG. 2. The balls 19 having letter indiciawhich do not correspond with the indicia of that compartment arereturned to the bottom of the body by depressing selected of the returnmembers. This procedure of first manually rotating the flap member 25and then depressing selected return members is repeated until all of theballs are in compartments having corresponding indicia.

While the alphabet is one indicia arrangement for educating youngerchildren, it is understood that other indicia could be employed with thestructural arrangement shown and different numbers of compartments couldbe utilized so that the game device may be used as a chance deviceassociated with a game board or the like whereby the compartments andballs would have different indicia and a particular ball in a particularcompartment would indicate a particular play in the game.

Although the present invention has been described with a certain degreeof particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure has beenmade by way of example and that changes in details of structure may bemade without departing from the spirit thereof.

What is claimed is:

l. A game device comprising a hollow body containing a plurality ofmovable objects each marked with distinctive indicia, a plurality ofcompartments arranged in an upper portion of said body, each saidcompartment having distinctive indicia, said indicia on each of saidmovable objects being identical to the indicia on each of saidcompartments, an object elevating means mounted in the body to sweep theobjects from the bottom of the body into said compartments in a singleupward stroke, and return means for selectively returning objects fromthe compartments back into the bottom of the body.

2. A game device as set forth in claim 1 wherein said movable objectsare balls marked with a letter of the alphabet.

3. A game device as set forth in claim 1 wherein said object elevatingmeans includes a flap member in the body with a rod along one side edgesupported in the end walls of the body to rotate the flap member in avertical plane.

4. A game device as set forth in claim 3 wherein said rod terminates inenlarged grip members suitable for manually rotating said flap member.

5. A game device as set forth in claim 1 wherein said return meansincludes an individual return member for each said compartment.

6. A game device as set forth in claim 5 wherein each said individualreturn member includes a pair of legs arranged about a common hub atabout right angles to one another, a pivot member extending through saidhub for pivotal movementto move one leg through the associatedcompartment against a movable object in the compartment to remove theobject from said compartment.

7. A game device as set forth in claim 6 wherein one of said legsextends through the rear wall of the compartment and is moved downwardlyto remove the object.

8. An educational game device comprising:

a hollow generally rectangular body including top, bottom,

end and front and rear walls formed as an integral unit and containing aplurality of balls each marked with a letter of the alphabet,

a plurality of ball-receiving compartments arranged side by sidelongitudinally of the body in an upper portion thereof along the rearwall with each compartment being open at the front and with eachcompartment being consecutively marked with a letter of the alphabet,

a flap member in the body having a rod along an edge thereof with endportions of the rod extending through said end walls and terminating inknobs for swinging movement of the flap member to sweep the balls fromthe bottom of the body into the compartments in a single upward rotarystroke, and

a return member for each compartment marked with a corresponding letterof the alphabet, each said return member including a pair of legsarranged at approximately right angles to one another on a common hub,the hub being pivotally mounted at the rear of the compartment andhaving one leg depending along the rear wall of the compartment and theother leg projecting through the rear wall ofthe compartment to be moveddownwardly to move the depending leg against a ball in the compartmentto selectively return the ball from the compartment to the bottom ofsaid body.

1. A game device comprising a hollow body containing a plurality ofmovable objects each marked with distinctive indicia, a plurality ofcompartments arranged in an upper portion of said body, each saidcompartment having distinctive indicia, said indicia on each of saidmovable objects being identical to the indicia on each of saidcompartments, an object elevating means mounted in the body to sweep theobjects from the bottom of the body into said compartments in a singleupward stroke, and return means for selectively returning objects fromthe compartments back into the bottom of the body.
 2. A game device asset forth in claim 1 wherein said movable objects are balls marked witha letter of the alphabet.
 3. A game device as set forth in claim 1wherein said object elevating means includes a flap member in the bodywith a rod along one side edge supported in the end walls of the body torotate the flap member in a vertical plane.
 4. A game device as setforth in claim 3 wherein said rod terminates in enlarged grip memberssuitable for manually rotating said flap member.
 5. A game device as setforth in claim 1 wherein said return means includes an individual returnmember for each said compartment.
 6. A game device as set forth in claim5 wherein each said individual return member includes a pair of legsarranged about a common hub at about right angles to one another, apivot member extending throuGh said hub for pivotal movement to move oneleg through the associated compartment against a movable object in thecompartment to remove the object from said compartment.
 7. A game deviceas set forth in claim 6 wherein one of said legs extends through therear wall of the compartment and is moved downwardly to remove theobject.
 8. An educational game device comprising: a hollow generallyrectangular body including top, bottom, end and front and rear wallsformed as an integral unit and containing a plurality of balls eachmarked with a letter of the alphabet, a plurality of ball-receivingcompartments arranged side by side longitudinally of the body in anupper portion thereof along the rear wall with each compartment beingopen at the front and with each compartment being consecutively markedwith a letter of the alphabet, a flap member in the body having a rodalong an edge thereof with end portions of the rod extending throughsaid end walls and terminating in knobs for swinging movement of theflap member to sweep the balls from the bottom of the body into thecompartments in a single upward rotary stroke, and a return member foreach compartment marked with a corresponding letter of the alphabet,each said return member including a pair of legs arranged atapproximately right angles to one another on a common hub, the hub beingpivotally mounted at the rear of the compartment and having one legdepending along the rear wall of the compartment and the other legprojecting through the rear wall of the compartment to be moveddownwardly to move the depending leg against a ball in the compartmentto selectively return the ball from the compartment to the bottom ofsaid body.